Philadelphia Eagles Column: Waiting for the Eagles to reach their full potential

Philadelphia Eagles running back LeSean McCoy (25) celebrates a touchdown in the third quarte rof an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

PHILADELPHIA — There have been rallies and there has been determination. There has been resilience after injury. There has been grit, the word Andy Reid has used after three Eagles wins, the one he used after the last Eagles loss.

Too bad the Eagles are not a developing college program. And too bad that it’s not enough any more for settling for strong character, even after losses.

Grit is not enough. Not now. Not this late into his administration. Not this deep into a payroll. Not this late — is it Week 6 already? — into a season. And certainly not Sunday, when the Detroit Lions will visit the Linc.

For while the Birds’ late-game abilities should have encouraged their fans, and while Reid and his assistants coaches are right to insist that with fewer turnovers everything would look better, it’s time for the Eagles to start looking like the dreamy, skyrocketing, golden, developing dynasty that they keep insisting is their destiny.

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Nor is that an unreasonable challenge. They are close. They are 3-2, alone in fine-print first place in the NFC East, loaded with offensive talent, improved on defense. They were a popular future-book offering in Vegas. Their coach is in his 14th season.

They have championship potential and yet, they’ve struggled. They struggled to win in Cleveland, against a sorry program with a useless quarterback. They didn’t score a touchdown in Arizona. They did defeat two championship-minded teams at home, Baltimore and the New York Giants, but only narrowly. By the time they lost, 16-14, in Pittsburgh last week, they realized why that is so risky.

The Eagles have played the way good NFL teams play. But they have not looked like a great one. And because they have the potential to be a great one, Jeffrey Lurie has demanded more this time. Loudly, by his standards.

So when will the Eagles blow a team out, the way the 49ers did against Buffalo, the way Houston has, the way New England has, the way the Cardinals blew them out?

When will they start strong and grow stronger, and not just finish that way, gritty as they may be?

“I’m waiting,” Mike Vick acknowledged. “That responsibility falls first and foremost on me as the quarterback of this football team — on the offense putting it all together as a team. We want to start fast as a team on offense. That’s been our goal, and we’re going to put it together at some point. But you have to do it on Sundays and you have to get it done.”

Arrive now the Lions, who unlike the Eagles have found ways to lose, not win. Though they are a dangerous passing team, they are 1-3 and play the wide-nine defense. That means that LeSean McCoy could run so freely that after the game he might affix a 26.2 euro-sticker on his back windshield.

This is the Eagles’ moment. They are the better team, favored, playing at home, bouncing off a loss, a little desperate to start flexing, determined to cut down on turnovers. Their next four will be against Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas and Washington, and all figure to be troublesome. There are some other possible opportunities for them to bully --- at Tampa maybe, or against Cincinnati at home. They will play the Panthers. But who knows what football trouble will bend those games when they finally arrive?

So, no, this is the one. Sunday, the Linc, the Lions, the challenge. And the mandate: Put a dominating game together.

“As opposed to winning by two points or losing by two points?” Reid said, after practice Friday at the NovaCare Complex. “You never know. If it’s one point, it’s one point. I’m good with that. I’m taking them any way that we can get them. I don’t complain about that. But can we get better in areas so we’re more efficient in areas? Yeah, we can do that. And that’s what we’re working on doing.”